“Constantly having to go to doctor”- Noah Lyles shares biggest struggles from asthma to dyslexia on journey to become one of world's fastest sprinters

American track and field athlete Noah Lyles opened up about the challenges he faced on his journey to becoming the person he is today. Lyles joined Usain Bolt as the only athlete to win four successive world 200m titles at the 2025 World Athletics Championships.

He won bronze in the 200m at both the Tokyo 2021 and Paris 2024 Olympics, even while struggling with COVID. At the 2025 World Championships, he ran the fastest 200m time of the year in the semifinals, clocking 19.51s. After his successful world campaign, Lyles spoke with Speakeasy about the hardest experiences he had to go through to become one of the world's fastest sprinters.

Lyles opened up about two of the toughest challenges he faced growing up. The first was dealing with asthma as a child. Diagnosed with severe asthma at the age of three, he had to visit doctors constantly and manage breathing issues, which made pursuing his dream of playing sports extremely difficult.

"I'd say the two hardest things were going through asthma as a kid, constantly having to go to the doctor, constantly having an issue with breathing. Hearing every day, 'Mom, I want to play sports.' 'Let's just make sure that you can breathe first.' That was a dream of mine to play sports. I would be willing to die to go out there to attempt to play sports."

"And then the second thing would be going through school, having dyslexia, having ADHD, trying to go through normal standardized testing and constantly being thrashed against the school system for a learning strategy that just doesn't work for me. Feeling that I wasn't adequately smart or intelligent because the way they were testing intelligence was not accurate to me," Noah Lyles added (16:02 onwards)

Noah Lyles earned his first Olympic gold medal in Paris 2024, delivering a stunning performance in the Olympic 100 meters. He became the first U.S. man to win a gold medal in the event since Justin Gatlin in 2004

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All about Noah Lyles’ 2025 World Athletics Championships campaign

Noah Lyles at World Athletics Championships Tokyo 2025 - Source: Getty

Noah Lyles had an impressive outing at the World Athletics Championships, winning three medals in the 100m, 200m, and 4x100m relay events. He began his campaign by winning bronze in the 100m, finishing behind Jamaica’s Oblique Seville and Kishane Thompson.

In the 200m final, Lyles held off a strong field to win his fourth successive world title in the discipline, having previously won in Doha, Eugene, and Budapest. He ended his championship run by leading Team USA to a gold medal in the 4x100m relay.